Designed ingredients, or the design of gastronomic matter
When we eat a cake, we don’t think about the flour used to make it, nor do we know where it came from, or in which field the grain ground to make it was grown. Nor do we think about which factory it was processed in or how it traveled to the bakery where it was made into part of our meal, along with other ingredients and components. Like flours, these products – margarine, yeast, refined sugars, pasteurised eggs… – are also the result of production processes on a (semi-)industrial scale, not reflected (or hidden) in the final products of everyday confectionery. This section addresses some of these processes, showing how the chains of production, processing and distribution, not to mention the resources used and waste created, require thinking about semi-industrial pastry design in systemic terms. This requires, in turn, promoting an awareness, among informed consumers, about the contemporary food industry.
Text: Frederico Duarte and Rita João
Photos: Pedro Sadio